CHICAGO -- It took Hornets Coach Byron Scott almost 20 minutes to come out of the locker room Saturday night and discuss the specifics of went wrong in their embarrassing 97-79 loss to the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

The Hornets got little bench help, missed all 11 shots attempts from behind the 3-point arc and they trailed by a 32-poiint margin in the fourth quarter. The Hornets (41-24) entered riding the momentum of winning nine of their previous 10 and they sought to avenge a 107-93 loss to the Bulls last month in New Orleans.

"I don't know if it shocks me, but it disappoints me more than anything,'' Scott said. "We've seen this picture a few times this season where we just don't come out ready to play. We had an opportunity to kind of help ourselves, so it's just disappointing.''

The game got out of hand after Scott inserted Antonio Daniels, Devin Brown, Hilton Armstrong, Ryan Bowen and James Posey and they allowed the Bulls to go on a 9-2 run that led to a 12-point lead. Even when the starters returned, they could not stop Chicago from surging. The Bulls took a 53-39 lead into halftime and extended their advantage to 81-57 by the end of the third quarter.

Ben Gordon led the Bulls with 27 points, John Salmons had 24 and Brad Miller came off the bench and scored 15.

"Our offense definitely wasn't stagnant tonight, it was fluid,'' Salmons said."This shows what we can do if we come out and play.''